To the Distinguished Members of the Class of 2014-
First let me start off by saying congratulations. For some of you this is a major accomplishment. For others, this is merely an item to be checked off a long to do list. It has truly been a pleasure to have gotten to know you over the course of the last two years. I have seen some of you mature before my eyes from immature children to the fine, upstanding young men and women that you are today. I have also seen some of you not change a bit, which is OK too, I guess. It seems like not too long ago I was preparing for my own high school graduation. During that time, I received a great deal of advice from adults in my life, most of which went ignored because, let's face it, you think you have the world figured out at 18. But trust me, you do not. So I am hoping that you will listen to a few pieces of advice I would like to give you. After all, we are of the same generation, so hopefully you are more inclined to listen to me than some of the other adults who will undoubtedly be giving you the same advice.
My first piece of advice goes out to society in general, but is something that our generation specifically struggles with, and will continue to struggle with, probably all our lives. We must not let our technological profile define who we are as individuals. We must be careful not to be defined by followers, retweets, "friends", favorites, likes, or comments. We must continue to define success in our lives based off of the number of people that we positively impact on a daily basis. Notice I said people, not profiles. The internet is a scary place where people project themselves to be personas that they are not in real life. Never become only a profile. Always be a person. Profiles don't care about feelings or the impact of their words. People care about those things. Profiles can't display empathy. This is the most important difference between people and profiles- the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes.
This leads me to my second piece of advice. Always treat people right. This means everyone. Don't just treat what you think are the right people right. The greatest thing a person can do is offer assistance to another who has no possible way to pay them back. Never help someone just because of what you think they can do for you. Help people and treat them the right way because it is the right thing to do. You never know when your good (or bad) deeds are going to catch up to you down the road. Don't burn bridges when things end at any point in your life. Life has a funny way of bringing things and people back together when they least expect it.
My final article of advice is to never lose your drive to wonder and learn. You will never know it all. You will never figure it all out. Don't pretend like you have. Never be afraid to ask questions. Never stop learning. Never stop wondering. This world is a pretty amazing place and you need to stop every once in a while and just look around. You will experience some incredible highs and some dreadful lows in your life; everyone does. What sets people apart is how they react to those moments. Never get too high during the good times in your life, and never get too low during the down times.
My hope is that you take some small seed of advice from this letter and plant it somewhere in your brain. Let it grow and maybe some day you will come across a time when you can use it. The last two years with you have been great. There are many bright futures among you and I look forward to seeing how things play out. Congratulations on your accomplishment, but don't settle for this. And most importantly, stay in touch.
Sincerely,
Mr. Burman